Chapter 9
Noelle Evergreen
Just when I thought that my Christmas miracle was going to come true, it was all shot to hell. The female Drackon that I had been dealing with, Samara, was his wife! When I fantasized about seeing Gavonn again for the first time in years, I did not imagine that he would be married to another. It was a shock, a complete and crazy shock.
Now we were in hyperspeed, on our way to Earth. I didn't know what to say. I crossed my arms and stared ahead.
“Talk to me,” he said, breaking the silence.
“No, I do not want to,” I said turning away from him.
“Noelle, I am sorry. I know that you must be in shock. You have every right to be,” he said.
“That is all you have to say?” I said angrily.
“No, but you are not letting me finish…”
“That is because I am pissed off. how dare you keep that from me! I can't believe that just happened. What just happened? I'm so confused, Gavonn. What was that back there? I can't believe I left. I was working. Now I can never go back to my life,” I said rambling on and on.
“Just let me speak, dammit!” he said.
“Why? So you can lie to me some more? This is a nightmare. This is not how I thought things would go,” I said narrowing my eyes at him. I was fuming.
“This is not how I planned things to go either. I was not planning for that to happen. I was not planning…”
“No, you were not. You were not planning on getting caught cheating! You were cheating on your wife!” I shouted at him.
“That is not what I meant. Will you just give me a minute to explain? Just calm the hell down,” he said.
“No, I will not,” I said. I unbuckled the seatbelt and stomped to the back of the ship. I opened the door to the washroom and stepped in. I did not want to look at him.
“Dammit, Noelle! You can't run away from me. We need to talk about this. I have a right to explain myself, don't I?” he shouted at me from the front of the ship.
But I did not want to hear it. I was extremely mad at him, but I was also mad at myself. I had let myself get carried away with something that I thought was more than it actually was. I had thought that if Gavonn was alive out there somewhere, that he was pining away for me the way that I was for him. I thought that he was waiting for me or trying to get in contact with me. But I was very wrong. He only waited a year before marrying someone. That broke my heart. I was pissed off, but I was pissed off that he was going to see me heartbroken. He didn't deserve it. I splashed water on my face. What the hell was I going to do now? I was now a fugitive, with Gavonn. Even though I was angry at him and he was married to another I was now stuck with him. At least until we figured this out.
There was banging out the door.
"Noelle, I am sorry. I want to tell you everything. I don't love her. There was so much to tell you, and I should've told you as soon as I saw you, but I couldn't. I want to talk, but I am not going to do it through this damn door,” he said. He was angry. Why the hell was he angry? He had no right to be.
“Leave me alone, Gavonn!” I said.
“Fine. I have to keep an eye on the ship anyway. I've pulled out the bed and blankets for you. At least try to get some rest,” he said. Then I heard his heavy boots walk away.
The washroom was small: very small. It reminded me of one on an airplane. I couldn't stay in there any longer. I slowly opened the door, trying not to make any noise. Even though I knew it was obvious that he heard the door opening.
I peeked out. He was sitting in the pilot seat. I tiptoed out of the door. There was a hanging bench, a very long one, with a thin mattress. It was a fold out bed of sorts. There were two blankets folded and a pillow. I was exhausted. Even though it was morning on Sala, I had not gotten used to the time difference. Traveling from one planet to another was the worst jet lag possible. Plus, I just wanted to lay down. I didn't want to sit next to Gavonn.
I lay down on the bench and covered myself with the blanket. I stared up at the ceiling of the ship. This was not what I thought it was going to be like. I did not plan on leaving Sala with Gavonn in this way. In my head, I thought that he would ask me to marry him and that I would be invited to live with him on Mooreah. I would be able to see Betty again. It would be one big friendly bunch. But that was far from what had happened. Though I was shocked when he said that Betty was marrying his best friend.
I kept thinking about all of these things over and over and slowly drifted off to sleep. I did not know how long I slept, but it must've been a while.
“Noelle, wake up. We are almost there. Noelle,” I heard Gavonn say. In my sleep, I had forgotten what had happened. Hearing his voice made me happy. For a split second, I thought that everything was great. I had Gavonn again. I had wanted him for so long, and he was back in my life. I opened my eyes. He was hovering over me. His brown eyes with the vertical cat-like pupil stared down at me. It was then that I remembered. He was married, the jerk.
“What? What is it? What do you want, Gavonn?” I said as I sat up on the bench. I rubbed my eyes trying to wake up.
“I am about to pull the ship out of hyperspeed. I need to know where on Earth we are going. I will need to put in the coordinates to take us there,” he said.
I stood up and stretched. I could not believe how fast hyperspeed got us to Earth. It was so much faster than the long voyage of going the normal speed.
“There is a cabin in upstate New York. I only just inherited it a few months ago. I have not been there since I was a child. I don't know exactly where it is,” I said.
“You don't? Then how are we supposed to get there? I thought you had a plan,” he said.
I put my hands on my hips. “I do have a plan.”
“Then tell me,” he said.
“I have the deed, the paperwork for the cabin in my apartment. It has the address on it. We have to go to my apartment to get it,” I said.
“So we are going to New York City?” he asked.
“Yes, we have to,” I said.
"New York City it is,” he said. He moved to the pilot seat and began to type in the information and making the adjustments. I moved to the chair beside him and strapped in.
“Where is your apartment?” he asked.
“It is near a large green area called Central Park. It is in a very tall building on Fifth Avenue,” I said.
“Would I be able to land on the roof?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“All right, we are entering the atmosphere of Earth directly over this area of New York City,” he said.
“I will direct you,” I said. Within seconds, the right city lights of New York came into view. We were lucky that ships coming and going from the Drackon fleet was a standard deal. It wasn't unusual to see a Drackon ship or a Drackon flying around with their silver wings.
“There, you see that very bright white light,” I said pointing to a particular landmark.
“I do,” he said.
“I am two buildings to the left of that. There is an orange light on the roof,” I said.
“Roger, I see it.”
I watched as he expertly piloted the ship onto the roof. I wasn't expecting to be home so soon. I was expecting in my heart to end up staying on Mooreah with Gavonn as his wife. But that has drastically changed, obviously.
“No one comes up here. In fact, the door is usually locked. I'm not exactly sure how we will get an aside,” I said as I unbuckled my belt and stood up to walk to the back of the ship.
“Leave that to me,” he said.
“If you say so,” I said rolling my eyes at him. Anything he said pissed me off. I just wanted to punch my tiny fist against his heart and chest, but I knew it would do no damage. He was a hardened warrior.
We walked out of the ship onto the roof. I walked to the door that led to the stairs. I pulled on it.
“Locked, like I said,” I said.
“Allow me,” he said pushing me over to the side. I crossed my arms and moved to the side to watch him. He didn't believe me that it was locked.
He pulled on the door handle with a grunt. The door opened. He looked at me and smiled. He had broken the lock. I hated that it turned me on that he was so powerful more so than a human man.
“Great. Good job,” I said sarcastically and with a bit of sassiness. I did not want to admit to him that I really was impressed by this. In fact, I was going to give him more shit about it. I walked into the stairwell, and he followed. “But now that you have broken the lock, anyone can go onto the roof and see your shit,” I said crossing my arms across my chest to make a point.
“I can take care of that too,” he said. “Stand back, Noelle. I don't want you to get hurt.”
I walked down a few of the steps getting away from him. Then I watched as his chest began to glow orange then yellow. Out of his mouth came a short burst of fire. The lock melted back together. Then he stopped. He turned and looked at me and gave me that arrogant smirk again. I just turned my back to him and began to walk down the stairs. I did not want him to see that I was breathing hard. That my heart was pounding so fiercely, I thought he might be able to hear it. I did not want him to see that I was impressed once more and then I was completely turned on beyond belief.
A few moments later, I was unlocking the door to my apartment with a key I had hidden on the ledge of the hallway. I had left Sala with none of my belongings in our quick escape.